A smoke alarm provides great safety for a person in a building. The smoke alarm is activated by smoke or flame to produce a highly disturbing noise capable of waking a person. Such alarms are quite useful during the sleeping time of a person.
It is quite possible for a person to sleep through a fire and not wake up. As a result thereof, the starting of a fire can lead to death from smoke inhalation or burns. In fact, smoke inhalation is a more common form of death in a fire than are burns. A smoke alarm is designed to produce a noise to disturb the sleep and permit a person to vacate the building in suitable time in case of fire. Thus, it is clearly seen that a smoke alarm has great advantages.
However, it is common for a smoke alarm to be activated, when it is not necessary for it to be so activated. For example, when cooking takes place in a home, the heat from the oven or smoke from the cooking can cause the smoke alarm to be activated when not desired. Because it is required to mount the smoke alarm on the ceiling, it is required to climb onto or use a chair, ladder or other suitable device to permit reaching of the smoke alarm in order to deactivate the alarm, during a period when it is activated unnecessarily.
Most alarms are battery powered. As a safety mechanism, the alarm activates when the battery is low. It is also necessary to use a chair or ladder to replace a battery for the smoke alarm. Thus, the activation of the smoke alarm by low battery power causes an annoyance to a person.
It is quite common for a person to overlook the safety factor of a smoke alarm and simply disconnect the battery when these annoyances occur. This is especially true in view of the fact that a ladder or other other similar device must be used to reach most smoke alarms. Furthermore, it is quite common for a person to fail to reinstall a battery in a smoke alarm, thereby rendering the alarm inoperable. It is highly desirable to modify a smoke alarm mount so that the smoke alarm can be easily accessed for terminating undesired activation for whatever reason, while avoiding the necessity of making the smoke alarm inoperable.